Long before cable news became a 24-hour fixture in American homes, Ted Turner reportedly made plans for how CNN would sign off forever — with a somber hymn and a haunting farewell video meant only for the apocalypse.
According to the New York Post, the resurfaced clip gained renewed attention following Turner’s death on Wednesday at 87.
The CNN founder had secretly commissioned what employees later referred to as the network’s “doomsday video,” according to archived reports and footage that eventually leaked online.
The eerie recording featured military bands from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines performing the Christian hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” outside CNN’s original headquarters in Atlanta.
Turner reportedly ordered the video shortly after launching CNN in 1980, insisting the network would remain on the air until the literal end of civilization.
“Barring satellite problems, we won’t be signing off until the world ends,” Turner declared at the time.
“We’ll be on, and we will cover it [the end of the world] live, and that will be our last, last event.”
He also explained exactly how the network would end its broadcast.
“We’ll play the national anthem only one time, on the 1st of June [1980], and when the end of the world comes, we’ll play ‘Nearer, My God, To Thee’ before we sign off.”
For decades, the tape reportedly sat buried inside CNN archives under the label “TURNER DOOMSDAY VIDEO,” along with instructions that read: “HFR [hold for release] till end of world confirmed.”
The footage stayed hidden from the public until 2015, when former CNN intern Michael Ballaban released a copy he discovered during a 2009 internship.
The hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” also carries a haunting connection to the sinking of the RMS Titanic, as it is widely believed to have been the final song played while the ship went down.
Turner transformed television news when he launched CNN as the first 24-hour cable news network in 1980. He later built a media empire that included TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies.
Known for his larger-than-life personality, Turner also owned the Atlanta Braves and won the America’s Cup yacht race in 1977 aboard Courageous.
CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Mark Thompson remembered Turner as “the presiding spirit of CNN.”
“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless, and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment,” Thompson said.
Turner had previously revealed he suffered from Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disorder. Reports also indicated he had been hospitalized earlier this year following pneumonia.
